Essay On What Did Wollstonecraft Think Of The Humanities

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What does Wollstonecraft think of the humanities (e.g., literature, music, art) vs. the sciences?
Wollstonecraft appeared to look disappointingly on the humanities of the time, while agreeably on the sciences. I believe Wollstonecraft looked poorly on humanities, because at the time it was all that was truly available to woman (a good percentage did not even have that option). She believed that the humanities, arts, and ‘sensibilities’ made women weak mentally. Wollstonecraft specified that, “Novels, music, poetry, and gallantry, all tend to make women the creatures of sensation, and their character is thus formed in the mould of folly during the time they are acquiring accomplishments, the only improvement they are excited, by their station in society, to acquire. This overstretched sensibility naturally relaxes the other powers of the mind” (131). Wollstonecraft genuinely credited the learning of just
She believed education in the sciences for everyone not just women were the key to enlightenment and freedom. Wollstonecraft asserts that: the whole tenour of female education (the education of society) tends to render the best disposed romantic and inconstant; and the remainder vain and mean. In the present state of society this evil can scarcely be remedied…should a more laudable ambition ever gain ground they may be brought nearer to nature and reason, and become more virtuous and useful as they grow more respectable (146).
In conclusion, Mary Wollstonecraft believed that everyone should be educated in the sciences and that they were more practical to life and thought. Whereas, the humanities just made a continuation of the mindless stupidity of society. However, I do not think Wollstonecraft would look at the humanities with such animosity in today’s society, knowing that our society has correlated these two areas into early

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